Back pain nearly drove Bill Walton to end it all

FILE - In this March 27, 2007, file photo photo provided by McDonald's, legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, right, sits with Bill Walton during the banquet for the the 30th anniversary McDonald's All American High School Basketball Games, in Louisville, Ky. Wooden led UCLA on its vaunted 88-game winning streak. "Wooden never talked about winning or losing," Bruins great Bill Walton says. (AP Photo/McDonald's, Henny Ray Abrams, HO)
— AP

FILE - In this March 27, 2007, file photo photo provided by McDonald's, legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, right, sits with Bill Walton during the banquet for the the 30th anniversary McDonald's All American High School Basketball Games, in Louisville, Ky. Wooden led UCLA on its vaunted 88-game winning streak. "Wooden never talked about winning or losing," Bruins great Bill Walton says. (AP Photo/McDonald's, Henny Ray Abrams, HO)
/ AP

By his count, Bill Walton has undergone 36 orthopedic surgeries at various points on his 6-foot-11 frame. But if you know Walton, then you’re aware that he’s never needed an operation on his enthusiasm for life — until 14 months ago, when his pain had reached the point where he seriously wondered if he could go on.

Walton, one of the all-time-great basketball players, a man whose intelligence and enthusiasm enabled him to roll over every pothole in his past and find success in most every endeavor he’s undertaken, admits the incredible pain brought about by a bad back took him to the brink, where he contemplated taking his own life.

“I’m getting back into the game of life,” Walton, throwing both of his long arms in the air, was saying as we sat outside his San Diego home. “I have a new life now. It got to the point where my life wasn’t worth living. I was standing on the edge of the bridge, figuring it was better to jump than to go back to where I was.”

Suicide? Bill Walton? This is a man who wanted to be a great basketball player and became one. This is a man who, as a youngster, had a speech impediment and beat it — to the point where, for 19 years, he became one of the most prominent basketball broadcasters, an Emmy winner. This is a man who knew how to play with pain — until this.

“You can’t understand until you’ve been where I’ve been,” said Walton, adding that he’s finished with broadcasting and is exploring new business opportunities.

The turnaround began when Walton was introduced to Dr. Steven Garfin, chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics (specializing in the spine) at UCSD, a master and teacher of new, less-invasive surgical techniques.

“Dr. Garfin saved my life — a great man,” Walton said of the doctor who practices the new surgical technique of operating on the spine by entering through the side using a Neurovision probe. The instruments are developed by NuVasive Inc., a rising local company dedicated to making minimally destructive spinal surgical tools — and teaching doctors such as Garfin how to use them.

Working with NuVasive, Walton has helped develop and is an international spokesman for “The Better Way Back” (thebetterwayback.org), which assists those afflicted with chronic back and leg pain.

Walton says that before the 8½-hour surgery 14 months ago, he had become useless. He couldn’t walk and had trouble sleeping. But he had encouragement from his friends and especially from his wife, Lori.

“There were four incisions, four 4-inch bolts, two titanium rods and a cage that holds it all together and spacers in between the vertebrae,” he said. “It was the hardest thing I’ve had to go through, much more difficult than all my other surgeries combined. It’s come so far, the evolution of back surgery, and doctors constantly are improving.

“I can’t describe the pain. Think of being submerged in a tub of boiling acid with an electrified current running through it. That would be nothing. People who haven’t had that nerve pain can’t know. It’s debilitating, excruciating, unrelenting. I had to eat lying on the floor, flat on my stomach.